Electric sign



Sept. 2, 1941. 2,254,315

ELECTRIC- SIGN Filed Feb. 6, l959- 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 IN VE N TOR Sept. 2, 1941.

L. A. RICE ELECTRIC SIGN Filed Feb.

6, 1939 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 IN VE N TOR.

Patented Sept. 2, 1941 'ELECTRIC SIGN' 7 Leon A. Rice, Los Angeles, Calif., assignor to.

Electrical Products Corporation, Los Angeles,

Calif.

Application February 6, 1939, Serial No. 254,777 4 Claims. (o1. 40-130) This invention relates to an electric sign of the silhouette type in Which an elongated trough supports a line .of characters in front of and a little distance from a background surface which is illuminated by gaseous conduction tubing or other suitable light source carried by and usually concealed Within the trough. When such a sign is lighted, the characters appear as dark forms against the lighted background with the trough represented by a dark shadow along the corresponding edge of the line of characters.

Signs of this general type are quite popular due to their economy and the boldness of the display effects produced and are built with characters ranging from a few inches up to two or three feet in height and occasionally even higher. They are constructed in unitary fashion with the characters firmly soldered or bolted to the troughing and with the troughing containing the illuminating tubes, transformers and associated wiring.

The characters, standing free on the upper edge of the trough or suspended beneath it, deliver considerable weight and Wind load to the trough and hence must be securely fastened to it. It is an object of this invention to provide for the necessary firm attachment of characters to the trough while causing the characters to appear, when the sign is lighted, as though they were suspended in space away from the trough, whereby to avoid confusion of the character shadows with the trough shadow and improve the legibility of the sign.

If two objects illuminated to distinctly different degrees of light intensity be observed close to each other, the object of the higher intrinsic brilliance will appear larger than it is as compared to the other object. I take advantage of this phenomenon to increase the apparent separation of the characters from the trough for purposes of economy of construction, rigidity and saving of space, as explained in detail below.

In the lighting of a background surface by means of a light source extending along an edge thereof, there is a gradual reduction in light intensity over the surface with increasing distance from the source, which non-uniformity is the greater the closer the source is spaced to the surface plane. Furthermore, if the light source be concealed from direct view by a reflector, the closer it is to the edge of the reflector the greater Will be the contrast of light intensity over the surface, which contrast will be emphasized by the shadow of the reflector, the focus of attention being at the edge of the shadow.

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the positioning of the light source close to the exposed portion of the background surface .to make thebest use of the energy consumed without producing the contrast between the different portions of the background surface characteristic of prior art devices of this general type. In signs constructed according to my invention the luminous region between the characters andtheremaining trough shadow breaks the contrastof background illumination by dissociating the changes of intensity fromthe shadow definition. That is to say, in a sign of this general type as constructed according to the prior art, the juncture of character silhouettes with the trough shadow coincides With the region of maximum intensity, causing the same to become the focus of attention and greatly emphasizing the reduction of intensity toward the opposite edges of the characters. It has been found with signs made according to this invention that this unpleasant and confusing effect is substantially absent, the

reduction being much greater than is to be expected from a consideration offoot candles illumination value alone because of the breaking up of the sharp focal line of attention. I 7

It is a further object of the invention this connection to provide for a. reduction in thickness of the sign for the sake of appearances by taking advantage of the improved illumination and the optical effect thus accomplished.

The invention in its broad aspects may be variously modified within the claims and is not limited to the specific forms which I show in the drawings as my preferred embodiments thereof. According to one form of the invention as illus trated in the drawings the characters are spaced from the trough by light transmitting blocks through which bolts or other suitable fastening means pass. The discharge tube light is positioned behind the line of blocks preferably illuminating the same to a higher intrinsic brilliance than the background, whereby the blocks are caused to appear to be thicker than they actually are, or in other words, the characters appear'as though spaced from the trough edge by a greater distance than the thickness of the blocks. This form of the invention is particularly applicable to the construction of signs having characters of considerable size.

It is another object thereof to provide for the effective concealment of the holes through which the bolts pass and the bolts by so dispersing the light passing through the blocks that the exposed surfaces thereof appear uniformly lighted. This It is an object of this invention to provide for end is served by the lehticulation of the fronts of the blocks although various other methods may be used to the same end. In this connection it is a further object to provide a unit block which may be molded from glass or any other suitable material with a series of holes closely enough spaced that any character may be accommodated by the selection of appropriate holes for bolting it to the trough. Thus a very economical construction is effected as regards cost of material and assembly labor.

Vari-colored lighting effects may be secured by coloring of the blocks whereby the characters appear as though standing on a bar of light of a different color than the background.

It is an object of the second form of the invention shown in the drawings to provide a simple and low cost construction, particularly adapted to signs having characters of moderate height, in which the tube itself is observed through suitable perforations through the material of trough along the edge on which the characters are posi tioned. The light passing through the individual openings being of high intrinsic brilliance as compared with the background, the region covered by the perforations appears at a moderate distance as though substantially uniformly lighted. The effect of halation in the eye is to blend the light of the openings into a band of light, the characters thus appearing as though spaced from the trough.

It is an object of the third form of the invention illustrated to provide a construction with light transmitting spacer bar for supporting and spacing silhouette characters from a sign troughing which is relatively thin and light in weight but capable of supporting characters of considerable height in a firm manner.

The invention is shown in its preferred forms in the accompanying drawings in which the same reference numeral appearing in more than one view indicates the same part throughout.

Figure 1 is a front elevation of the end portion of a sign made here according and having light transmitting blocks spacing the characters from the trough and securing the same together in association with through bolts.

Figure 2 is a sectional view of the same taken as indicated by the section line 22 in Figure 1.

Figure 3 is a plan view of one of the spacing blocks enlarged to show the lenticulation of the front surface.

Figure 4 is a front elevation of a short portion of a modified sign including a single character, the remainder of the sign being a repetition of this portion in essential particulars. A perforated metal strip is used instead of blocks of light transmissive material.

Figure 5 is a sectional view of the same taken as indicated by the section line 5-5 of Figure 4.

Figure 6 is a front elevation of a short portion of another form of the invention in which I make use of continuous strips of light transmissive material.

Figure 7 is a sectional view of the same taken as indicated by the section line in Figure 6.

The essential elements of the sign of Figures 1 to 3 are the trough member, indicated by numeral I, the characters 2, 2, the spacing blocks 3, 3, etc., and the associated bolts 4, 4, etc., the elongated light source 5 and its associated electrical fittings, and the background member 6.

While I have shown a light of the gaseous discharge tube type, any suitable light source may be used. It is shown supported by means of insulating posts, such as that at 1, from the shouldered edge 8 of the trough metal. As is usual with this general type of sign, a transformer 9 is enclosed in the trough and connected by high tension cable, such as the section indicated by ID to the terminals of the tube. The connection to the opposite terminal of the tube is indicated by H.

The background 6 is built as a unit with the trough and may be boxed in at the ends as indicated at l2 or terminated in any other desired fashion. This sign may also be constructed without a background, the trough being secured to a wall which serves as the background for the characters, which type of construction is illustrated in Figures 4 and 5.

Preferably the blocks are molded of glass or plastic material with the holes spaced sufficiently close that at least two holes may be selected to provide fastening for any character in any position along the trough. The block shown in Figure 3 is lenticulated in vertical ridges whereby each ridge receives light from many different angles past the holes and refracts it to the ob server position so that the presence of the holes cannot be detected. The holes are indicated by M, 14, etc., and as a preferred detail, semicircular grooves l5, I5 are formed at the ends 16 and I! so that two blocks positioned edge to edge will accommodate a bolt between them. The end surfaces are preferably smooth so that light impinging on them from the inside of the block is reflected thus cancelling out the joints in the light distribution pattern through the blocks.

The light source is preferably located directly behind the blocks, each of the lenticulated ridges 20, 20, etc., acting as a cylindrical lens. Various other constructions may be used, however, to accomplish substantially the same ends by known means.

In Figures 4 and 5 I show another form of the invention in which the trough 2| includes a strip of perforated metal 22 along the front edge jointed and soldered to the trough proper 23, The light source 24 is positioned backward of the perforated strip, preferably exposing the tube to view through the openings. The character 25 is secured to the upper edge of this strip. A short section only of this sign being shown, it is to be understood that suitable stays or supports as required to stiffen the trough are used when it is of any considerable length. In the section of Figure 5 the sign is shown to be without a background surface, but is mounted on a wall 26 which serves as the background. If desired a background sheeting may be built into the sign in the manner shown in the preceding views.

In Figures 6 and 7 I show another form of the invention in which a grooved strip of light transmissive material is fabricated into the trough assembly in a simple and economical fashion. The trough proper, indicated by 30, has an upturned edge 3| which fits into the lower groove 32 of the light transmitting strip 33. The strip has a groove 34 on the upper edge to accommodate the downward turned ends 35 of back stays such as that shown at 36. Hold down strips 31 are bolted to the back brace to hold it in engagement with the groove. The back brace is bolted to the back of the trough which may continue upward to form the background sheeting as indicated by 38 or may be finished in the fashion shown in Figure 5.

Usually this brace assembly will be located at the position of the character as shown in the views, the bolt 39 passing through back brace,

the hold down strip and the bottom of the character. Additional braces, such as that indicated by 40, are provided to support the tops of the characters. The character L shown in the drawings and indicated by numeral 4| requires but a single upper brace. Characters of very considerable height and weight may be carried by this construction. The light source preferably is positioned backward of the strip 33, as shown by the gaseous discharge tube 42 which is mounted on insulating posts, such as that indicated by 43, to the brace 31.

Although in my preferred constructions I position the light source directly backward of the blocks, strips or perforations to be transilluminated, and provide for a higher intrinsic brilliance of the area between the characters and the shadow of the trough proper, the invention may be practiced within the purview of the claims by other positioning of the light source and with a comparable degree of light intensity as between that area and the background proper.

The term elongated light source as used in the claims includes elongated illuminants such as gaseous discharge tubes and a series of concentrated illuminants such as incandescent lamps when spaced suificiently close to serve in the manner thereof to provide continuous illumination along and behind a series of silhouette characters.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim is:

1. An electric sign including an elongated trough member adapted to be mounted on a background surface and having a forward tongued edge, an elongated light permeable bar member having a grooved edge associated tongueand-groove with said trough edge and extending therefrom in front of said surface, a brace from an edge of said bar member opposite said trough edge to said trough, a silhouette character associated edgewise with the last said edge of said bar member and extending therefrom in front of said surface, and an elongated illuminant extending lengthwise along and behind said bar member in position to illuminate said surface.

2. An electric sign including a background member, an elongated trough member associated lengthwise with and mainly forward of an exposed adjacent surface of said background member, an elongated light permeable bar member having a grooved edge associatededgewisetongueand-groove with a tongued forward edge of said trough member and extending therefrom in front of said background surface, a brace from an edge of said bar member opposite said trough edge to said trough, a silhouette character associated edgewise with the last said edge of said bar member and extending therefrom in front of said surface, and an elongated illuminant extending lengthwise along and behind said bar member in position to illuminate said surface.

3. An electric sign including an elongated trough member adapted to be mounted on a background surface and having a forward tongued edge, an elongated light ermeable bar member having a grooved edge associated tongue-andgroove with said trough edge and extending therefrom in front of said surface, a brace from an edge of said bar member opposite said trough edge to said trough, a silhouette character associated edgewise with the last said edge of said bar member and extending therefrom in front of said surface, a brace from a point on said character distant from said bar member to said trough, and an elongated illuminant extending lengthwise along and behind said bar member in position to illuminate said surface.

4. An electricsignincludingabackground member, an elongated trough member associated lengthwise with and mainly forward of an exposed adjacent surface of said background member, an elongated light permeablebarmemberhaving agrooved edge associated edgewise tongue-and-groove with a tongued forward edge of said trough member and extending therefrom in front of said background surface, a brace from an edge of said bar member opposite said trough edge to said trough, a silhouette character associated edgewis with the last said edge of said bar member and extending therefrom in front of said surface, a brace from a point on said character distant from said bar member to said trough, and an elongated illuminant extending lengthwise along and behind said bar member in position to illuminate said surface.

LEON A. RICE. 

